Assistance to High Energy Cost Communities | RD RUS HECG17

Opportunity Information: Apply for RD RUS HECG17

The Assistance to High Energy Cost Communities grant is a competitive funding opportunity run by the USDA Rural Utilities Service (RUS) to help places where residents pay extremely high amounts for home energy. In this round, RUS made up to $10 million available in total, with an expected 10 awards and a maximum award size (ceiling) of $3,000,000 per grant. The program sits in the rural utilities and community energy space and is tied to CFDA number 10.859, with activity areas that include energy, community development, and business and commerce.

The core purpose is to lower energy burdens and improve the reliability and affordability of energy service in eligible communities. Eligibility is based on a clear threshold: the community must have average annual residential home energy expenditures that exceed 275 percent of the national average. In other words, the program targets outlier communities where energy costs are not just high, but dramatically higher than what most U.S. households pay, which often reflects geographic isolation, limited fuel options, aging infrastructure, harsh climates, or constrained transmission and distribution systems.

Grant funds can be used for capital projects that provide community-level energy services. That includes acquiring, constructing, or improving energy generation facilities, as well as transmission and distribution infrastructure, as long as the facilities serve an eligible community. The solicitation also explicitly allows renewable energy projects, whether they are grid-connected (on-grid) or designed to operate independently (off-grid), which can be especially relevant for remote communities. In addition to supply-side investments, the program supports demand-side efforts through energy efficiency and energy conservation projects, recognizing that reducing consumption can be as impactful as building new generation when the goal is to reduce household energy costs over time.

A key boundary of the program is that projects must benefit the community rather than primarily helping a single household or a single business. The intent is to fund shared infrastructure or broadly available upgrades, not individual private benefits. There are also several notable restrictions on how funds may be used. The grant cannot pay for preparing the grant application itself, and it cannot be used to cover ongoing expenses like paying utility bills, buying fuel, or handling routine maintenance and other routine operating costs. It also cannot be used to buy equipment, structures, or real estate that is not directly tied to providing community energy services, which keeps the funding focused on essential project components rather than unrelated acquisitions.

The applicant pool is broad and includes many types of public, nonprofit, tribal, educational, and private-sector entities. Eligible applicants listed in the notice include state, county, and city or township governments; special districts; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized Native American tribal governments and other tribal organizations; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status; individuals; for-profit organizations (including small businesses and other for-profits); and other entities as clarified in the solicitation. This wide eligibility is designed to match the reality that energy service in high-cost areas may be planned, owned, or operated by many different kinds of local or regional organizations.

Administratively, the opportunity was posted under Funding Opportunity Number RD RUS HECG17 as a discretionary grant program by the USDA Utilities Programs. For the round described, the opportunity was created on October 20, 2017, with an original application closing date of December 13, 2017. The detailed requirements, definitions, and application instructions were published in the Notice of Solicitation of Applications in the Federal Register on October 12, 2017 (82 FR 47446), which is the controlling reference for specifics such as documentation, scoring or selection criteria, and any additional eligibility clarifications.

• The Department of Agriculture, Utilities Programs in the business and commerce, community development, energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Assistance to High Energy Cost Communities" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 10.859.
• This funding opportunity was created on Oct 20, 2017.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Dec 13, 2017. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $3,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, Individuals, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

Apply for RD RUS HECG17

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